Gears of War 3 Weapons Skins Only For The Rich

The are a few absolute certainties in life outside of death, taxes and overpriced console DLC, the latter of which Epic Games is attempting become a leader in. It began with the Gears of War 3 season pass which offers gamers all of the four pre-planned upcoming DLC packs for a “discounted” price of $30, i.e. half the price of the retail game. Without knowing exactly what is in this DLC, paying 50% more than the retail price of the game is a tough pill to swallow, even if it is cheaper than buying them individually – it just emphasizes that it’s all too expensive to begin with.

The costs to gamers for the Gears of War 3 DLC, should they choose to purchase it, reached a bit of a fever pitch over the weekend when we and other media outlets started talking about the weapon skin micro-transactions we found in-game. Gears of War 3 Director Rod Fergusson explained what these are all about and more importantly, how much they will cost.

There are 7 sets of weapon skins that come with the game and each set represents that skin for all five weapons (lancer, retro lancer, hammerburst, shotgun and sawed-off shotgun). Some of these could be unlocked through playing the Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta, others are earned through in-game accomplishments.

When you purchase the game yourself – it releases on Tuesday and you should (read our Gears of War 3 review to see why) – you’ll notice that in the multiplayer menu when picking the character and weapons of choice for multiplayer, there will be many, many more skins, all overlayed with a cash ($) symbol. These additional skins, 21 sets in total, are built into the retail version of the game but not usable without forking over money which brings us to the main issue at hand. Here are the prices of buying the weapon skins packs individually, static or animated, and in sets.

One skin pack (all five weapons) with static texture: 240 MSP/$3.00

One skin pack (all five weapons) with animated texture: 320 MSP/$4.00

One weapon pack (one weapon, all 21 skins): 1200 MSP/$15.00

All skins bundle: 3600 MSP/ $45.00

Note: The Gnasher and Sawed-off shotguns are combined for the weapon pack.

Yes, for friggin’ weapon skins, users will pay $45.00 to unlock all of them, and that’s the bulk discount. Weapon skins! How much do these cost to produce related to the retail game that costs $60.00?

Take a mortgage out for these skins

To put this in perspective, players can buy the complete Gears of War 3 weapon skin set, or for a cheaper price, they can buy the Gears of War 1 & 2 bundle with all DLC. This is what we call a rip-off and there’s no way around it.

To be clear, these microtransaction skins are purely cosmetic and are totally optional. For that reason, we recommend you do not purchase them. It sets an awful precedent where with each new game, more and more is left out so it can be charged for separately, and of course, there is absolutely no option to customize your own weapons skin a la Call of Duty: Black Ops.

If you’re paying $60 for the game, paying the “discounted” $75 for all of the DLC is ridiculous, optional or not (The Gears of War 3 season pass does not include these 21 weapon skins, but will include others). It’s too much and these skins should be rewarded for paying for the game and playing it online. Maybe Gears of War 4 will charge for bullets fired? Reloads optional.

43 Comments

Oh wow, Gaming just took a massive nose-dive into a hobos cardboard toilet, Nice work Epic Games ;), On a side note, More and more game publishers are taking this option, Honestly.. It’s pathetic, Like they didn’t make enough on the release dates, They then have to overcharge for cosmetics, This will probably add to the “call of duty” fanboys trolling on other games when they read about this :P.

If people want to buy this stuff it’s their choice. This has nothing to do with the gameplay or the quality of Epic’s work, so boycotting the ENTIRE game is going about this the wrong way. You don’t want to pay for weapon skins? Don’t do it then! I had leftover MS Points so I bought 2 sets, no big deal.

Nothing says you have to pay these prices for DLC, so why complain? Just don’t get any of it and consider it boycotted. I on the other hand will look amazing with my Rainbow Retro sticking out of your gut.

Hey, you’re missing the point. No one has an issue with DLC and everyone knows that it’s optional.

The problem is that content was intentionally left out, content that’s been done for months and is incredibly cheap to produce… and it’s being sold for an OUTRAGEOUS price (i.e. a rip-off) and the fact that there are users who buy it, like yourself, who think it’s not a big deal are supporting a terrible precedent where publishers of all games will now have an incentive to leave out more content and charge extremely high rates for them separately.

Weapon textures are something I could make in minutes in Photoshop. Charging this amount of money for them is absurd and is such a disservice to the fans who should be able to earn these through buying the game and play it loyally.

I disagree, Epic is providing dedicated servers for multiplayer and they also need a way to help recoup money lost to second hand sales.

Cosmetic DLC is one way to go about this. A skin helps one to stick out from the crowd and also creates a sense of ownership for a player (this is my lucky pink lancer, I cut down 3 people as last man on gridlock that time etc). In addition cosmetic DLC provides no gameplay advantage whatsoever and so does not allow a player to compensate for a lack of skill.

Sure, weapon textures are easy to produce and yes I agree that the pricing is out of whack compared to production costs. But I think you have to look at this more as a way to pay for dedicated servers and soften the sting of second hand sales while also giving more of a tail to the game they have invested years of time into.

I can agree with some of what your saying but if you wanted to help the sting of second hand sales why not have an unlock code in each NEW copy of the game purchased to unlock these skins, so if you bought it second hand you will have to purchase the skins seperate. Why punish the people that pre-order or buy new to begin with those people aren’t part of the “sting” of second hand sales, so they should not be slapped in the face by paying for content already on their disc.

Should be called GameWhining. If you don’t want to buy them, then don’t. How many weapon skins did we have in previous Gears games? Oh, none except a Gold one for pre-ordering. We got by just fine without them, so they’re not necessary, its just a perk for people who want their guns to look “cooler” and give money back towards the game. Yeah you paid for the game, but the previous Gears games’ cost didn’t include weapon skins, why should this one? Really, with the dedicated servers and all things considered, $60 is pretty cheap for what you end up getting.

I’ll remind people as well that there are a few weapon skins you can unlock via medals or other things completed, and some were released for playing the Beta, or playing the game on launch week. The beta, as I recall, was free as well if you pre-ordered the game.

Seriously, if people want to pay for skins, who cares? It’s not affecting you. If you want to complain about something Gears related, complain about something that actually affects everyone, not something optional that no one needs to pay for.

I pay for the work of the developers. If they make skins, they should be mine. That they are on disc is a clear evidence for fraud. I don’t know how other countrys think about that but in Germany fraud is still a word with a negative meaning.

We all are paying the bills for the developers, their cars, their houses, their meals and we have the right to get something for our money. The full product, not 95, not 99 but 100%.
Don’t know how optional or “you don’t have to buy it” has the ability to be an argument. Side-Storys are still part of a book or a movie, they’re not something I pay extra for. And I already payd for many DLCs, because they’re finished work!

I was selecting a SKin for my weapons and noticed the money icon on the camofloges. THis is rediculous…..First i have to pay for xboxlive-60$ a year, then i have to buy the game.60$…then i buy the Season pass…30$…And once ramm’s shadow came out it wasnt included. THe prices of this crap doesn’t bother me…. what bothers me is the COMPLEte RETARDS WHO BUY THIS… YOUR THE REASON ITS STILL SO OVERPRICED!